Tressel Looks Good to Forbes

With college football approaching a $2B industry, Forbes has dug into compensation and performance to try to determine the best (and worst) coaching values. The formula they used is pretty straight-forward (though the bonus points for BCS wins isn't exactly spelled out):

To measure bang for the buck, we developed a metric that compares a coachâ€™s 2007 salary with his teamâ€™s performance over the past three years. Bonus points were awarded for winning any of the five prestigious Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games. A score of 120 means that the coach achieved 20% more victories per dollar of pay than the average coach.

Despite the two big game losses, Tressel still came out on top of their rankings -- mostly due to the fact that he's only the 9th-highest paid coach in BCS football:

Good coach, bad coach

But the best bargain was Ohio Stateâ€™s Jim Tressel, who scored a 122. Tressel has led the Buckeyes to the last two national championship games (losing to Florida in 2007 and Louisiana State in 2008) and was paid $2.6 million last season, less than eight of his peers.

The worst coach for the buck, according to Forbes, is also a Big Ten coach (and rightfully one that's on the hottest seat in the conference):

The most overpaid coach is Iowaâ€™s Kirk Ferentz, who made $3.4 million last year despite lackluster results on the field, for a score of 71. Just how lopsided is Ferentzâ€™s deal? During the last three years heâ€™s pocketed $10 million, including a record $4.7 million in 2006, but has led the Hawkeyes to just a 19-18 record.